Gundam Girls Gen
by ingvild
Summary: Genfic shorts focussing on one or more female Gundam Wing characters. Each chapter is a standalone ficlet. May have been previously featured on LJ's gw500 community. I don't know why the first line of each chapter has been duplicated.
1. Chapter 1: Noin

A/N: A series of one-shots focussing on one or more of the women and girls of Gundam Wing

**A/N: **A series of one-shots focussing on one or more of the women and girls of Gundam Wing. Every chapter is stand-alone.

**Disclaimer:** Not mine. I'm just borrowing them.

**Mike from Mars**

Noin knew that back in the infancy of spaceflight when manned spacecrafts took an enormous amount of effort and resources and didn't make it further than the moon anyway, fiction had created the popular idea of alien Martians. They had been everything from threatening to friendly to naive and innocent.

Noin didn't know why so many fictional accounts had chosen Mars as the origin of these aliens, but she thought that if there really had been intelligent life on Mars, she could understand why they had left. Noin had lived many places, from her native Italy to Lake Victoria. She had been to Siberia and the Antarctic, and seen most of what the Earth had to offer – tundra, frozen ice wastes, desert, jungle, as well as the almost overly cultivated landscape of continental Europe. She had lived by the sea in the Sank Kingdom, and had kept a home in land-locked Brussels during her first year as a Preventer, although she hadn't spent much time there. Noin had even spent some time in the space colonies, with their artificial atmosphere and the hum of technology everywhere.

But even the space colonies tried to approximate Earth, simulating wind and gravity and even grass, although only the agricultural colonies took the trouble of creating the soil necessary to grow the real thing, and that was exclusively used for feeding livestock. Mars, on the other hand...

Mars was a desert, but nothing like the deserts on Earth. The stars were wrong. The air wasn't breathable. The gravity was wrong. What small traces of water existed on the surface wasn't nearly enough to provide the work crews with a daily ration. So far, water had to be brought in with the food – and the shipping line was unreliable. Noin had volunteered for spacial ice mining, needing to get off the planet where even time was wrong. The colonies kept to an Earth time cycle, but Mars had its own rotation.

She loved outer space, but she thought it would take some effort to come to love Mars.

Zechs was here, they were finally together again, but she wondered if that would prove to be enough. Through all their time together, he had remained remarkably dense about what she wanted from him, and she was tired of waiting.

A strong arm grabbed her around the waist, and she had wrenched loose and twisted it behind the person's back before she realised it was Zechs. She let go and was about to scold him for sneaking up on her when she realised that he was laughing excitedly. His eyes were sparkling and his long hair had been braided – she would have to take a picture and send to Duo.

"Isn't it wonderful, Noin? A whole new world, and we get to help shaping it!" She hadn't heard him sound so elated since...well, ever. He pulled her against him again, and Noin allowed herself to hope.

They were strangers in this strange, new land, but maybe it would be possible to call it home.


	2. Chapter 2: Mrs N, Mrs D, Relena, Dorothy

Dedication: This one is for my father: January 1, 1950 – December 3, 2007

Dedication: This one is for my father: January 1, 1950 – December 3, 2007.

**The Nature of Grief**

_Grief is a natural human reaction. Just as humans come in__ many shapes, so does grief._

**Mrs. Darlian**

She can't stay at the mansion. It's too big and too empty, and every time she goes around a corner, she feels wrong. It's like a big, empty hole shaped like her husband where he should be, but isn't, and it hurts, more than anything else has ever hurt before. She wants to scream, _why!? Why did you leave me, why did you leave us!?_ But she is too well-bred to ever scream.

She misses Relena as well, but she can't blame her for needing to get away, for finding something else to focus on. They only really borrowed Relena for a while. Her beautiful, brave little adopted girl belongs to the world now, like she was always meant to.

She huddles in her bed in the house of a childhood friend. Her daughter belongs to the world. Her husband belonged to the world. But as for herself...she doesn't know if there is a world anymore.

**Mrs. Noventa**

That boy. That child. How could he turn up here, over a month after the fact, and admit to having killed her husband? He stood there, looking at her with his old/young eyes and guilt pressing him down, and all she could do was hiss at him to get out before she did something she might regret, because it felt like he was murdering her husband all over again.

But through all the pain and anger, she knows that her husband would not want to take it out on a child the same age as, or possibly younger than, their precious granddaughter.

Was he asking for judgement? No, not really. She has been around soldiers long enough to recognise that he was looking for orders. Very well, then.

She sits down at her desk to write down his orders. Overall objective: make him live.

**Relena**

It's strange, she reflects, how people know, intellectually, that their parents will probably predecease them, but when it happens, they still feel betrayed. Because a person somehow has the subconscious notion that because their parents have always been there, they will always be there.

This is the second time she's been orphaned, but the first time she can remember, and it hurts, more than anything. The betrayal, however, is twofold. His last words disowned her, threw her adrift, and it has taken her some time to get over the hurt and accept that he meant it to be an honour.

She escaped from thinking about her father by focussing on Heero and the strange, new information she got from Doctor J. Because in spite of his best efforts to change it, Heero is still alive. Once he knew he was allowed to live, she was free to try and reclaim her lost legacy that her father presented to her. They were his dying words, and she will make him proud.

Relena is creating a world where no-one will ever be killed again.

**Dorothy**

It is part of human nature to fight, to live, to kill, to die. Why should she cry? Her grandfather was glorious in his final moments. He did not have to age into feebleness, loose his mind, become bedridden or tied to a wheelchair. He will never need anyone to wipe his bottom for him. Truly, they should all go in such a blaze of glory, and she does not grieve. She will not cry. She will rejoice.

So why does her heart ache?

She is beginning to understand that grief is for those left behind.

_The nature of grief is as diverse as the nature of the people who grieve. Some lose themselves in it, some work their way through it. Some use it as a catalyst and some push it aside._


	3. Chapter 3: Une

Rising to the Occasion

**Rising to the Occasion**

She couldn't tell when she stopped falling.

The last thing she could remember was the floor rushing towards her face. However, she didn't stop there. She kept on falling, down, down, further down. Like Alice down the rabbit hole, except Alice hadn't been dying.

_Am I dead?_

She wasn't a religious woman. It was not a conscious choice, she had just never been raised to believe in God. There were times when she thought it might have been comforting to believe in something larger than oneself, but she found that it wasn't something she could just decide to do later on in life.

Treize had believed that humanity had outgrown God. She had found that hard to believe.

"You're on your knees."

Colonel looked up to where the voice had come from. Wherever she was, it was dark – yet she could see the other person clearly. Her other self.

"Lady."

"You're on your knees. Prostrating yourself. Waiting for judgement. It won't come. This isn't Heaven or Hell."

"I don't believe in Heaven or Hell." Colonel paused. "Where are we?"

"Don't you recognise it? I suppose I've spent a lot more time here than you. It's the back of our mind. Our subconscious."

"If you always talk in short statements like that, I can't understand how you ever managed to affect the colony leaders."

Lady laughed. Colonel hated the sound. It reminded her that Lady was the sweet, personable one.

Graceful.

"Come now, Colonel. Why so hostile? Do you hate yourself so much?"

"You're not me. You're weak and naive, and people like that don't last long in the world."

"It's not weak to look for peaceful solutions. Look at the Peacecraft girl, is she weak? No, she's so strong that the entire world was beginning to listen to her words."

"Her methods won't work."

"Neither will yours, and you know that, don't you?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You're still on your knees."

Colonel swore and made to stand up, only to find that she couldn't. She glared at Lady, who merely gave her a gentle smile in return.

"You know that you won't make it out of here without me?"

"I don't need you."

"Really? Then tell me why you freed the Gundam pilots."

Colonel wanted to ignore her, but couldn't, not in here. But how could she answer, when she didn't know? "Because it was right," she finally bit out.

"How did you know that?"

Colonel stared at her other self, understanding dawning. Lady nodded.

"You've been letting me out so often, we were starting to merge. That was your skill and knowing in action, but my intentions." She held out a hand. "Come. Merge with me. Let us be one. With your knowledge of people's minds and my knowledge of people's hearts in the same body, we may finally become the person mister Treize always knew we could be."

Colonel hesitated...and then she took Lady's hand and stood.

She woke up in a hospital bed with no knowledge of how she got there or how long she had been there. There was a bouquet of roses by her bedside table.

She could hear the television blaring, telling her the latest development in the war. She knew what was necessary.

_I am Une._

She threw back the covers, and swung her legs out of the bed. For a second her knees buckled as the unused muscles in her legs protested. She gritted her teeth, grabbed the side of the bed, hauled herself up...

And stood.


	4. Chapter 4: Mariemaia, Relena

By Any Other Name

**By Any Other Name  
**

"May I sit down?"

Mariemaia looked up. Relena was standing in front of her, looking pretty but informal in a floral print white dress with her long hair piled up on her head. Summer had come, and it seemed like everyone was outside enjoying the weather now.

"Of course, Miss Relena", Mariemaia replied, moving her bags from the bench next to her. "Une had to make an errand. I'm waiting for her to come back", she added.

"That's all right. I'd like to talk to you for a bit, if you don't mind."

Mariemaia closed her book and put it in her lap. "About what, Miss Relena?"

"First, I'd like you to drop the 'miss'. It's just Relena, please. Second, I just wanted to talk about how you're doing."

"I'm fine," Mariemaia said. "The physiotherapy is working well. I still need crutches, but I can actually walk some distance now without too much pain."

"I never did thank you properly."

"It's okay."

For a while they sat in silence, before Relena said: "I hear you're going to enrol in school next autumn."

"Hmmm. Yeah. That should be fun."

Relena smiled at the sarcasm. "I might not have been well-known for the same reasons as you, but I do know a little about what it's like to have everyone recognise you." When Mariemaia didn't say anything, Relena sighed and fell silent again. Suddenly, she chuckled.

"What's the joke?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just... 'Mariemaia Barton Khushrenada'. You're going to have fun when it comes to filling out official papers."

Mariemaia blinked before she got the joke. She smothered a giggle. "Is that why you went back to the name Darlian? It's shorter than Peacecraft?"

Relena chuckled again. "You could almost believe that, right? No, that's not the reason."

"I don't think I understood why, though. I mean, you told us, but I wasn't really listening at the time."

Relena was silent for some time. Finally, she said: "Do you know how the ESUN political structure works when it comes to choosing representatives?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure. The President and Vice-President are elected, with the three most important offices. The rest of the government is chosen by the presidential office. Six year terms. First the presidential election, then they skip one year and then the three other offices are chosen the three successive years, skip one and presidential election again. It's your office, finance and justice, but I can't remember who's when. Finance is in the middle, I think."

"The representative for the Ministry of Justice is the last."

Mariemaia blinked. "You're going up for re-election next year?"

Relena nodded. "Yes, and I'm fervently hoping that at least two or three other people will run against me. Do you understand why?"

"...No."

Relena was looking at her now. Mariemaia felt strangely small yet invigorated by the stare. "I was asked to finish my father's term, and I accepted. If I'm re-elected it has to be because people believe I'm the best for the job, not because they recognise me as the former Queen Relena. For all that I tried my best, that position was doomed to fail. People look to a leader to think for them, but you taught me that people have to be trusted to think for themselves."

"I taught you...?"

Relena smiled then, and Mariemaia's heart skipped a beat. "Yes, you. I'm still a pacifist, but a more practical one than Relena Peacecraft was. My birth parents were symbols to the people, something to strive for, and so was I. When I took back the name Darlian I acknowledged that symbols weren't what were needed anymore. We all work towards peace, in a small or a big way, but it has to be a collective effort. Do you understand?"

Mariemaia nodded before she mumbled quietly: "You said birth parents."

"The Darlians raised me. They're my parents. I get flashes of memory, sometimes, but mostly of my brother. I have no clear memories of my birth parents."

"What does he think about your name change?"

"I don't know. It's not like he's using the Peacecraft name either. I don't think he likes Milliardo Peacecraft much as a person."

Mariemaia thought she understood. "I'm not too fond of Mariemaia Khushrenada."

They sat quietly for a minute, before Mariemaia said: "I can't call Une mother. I don't remember much about Leia Barton, but she's mother."

"I don't think she expects to be called mother. She just wants a chance to take care of you, and maybe she needs you to take care of her at times."

"Is it just because I'm Treize's daughter?"

Relena shook her head. "I think it's because you're a brilliant, skilful young lady who needed a second chance."

"Barton is Dekim's name."

"Yes."

"Do you think Une would let me use hers?" Mariemaia asked tentatively.

Relena chuckled. "It would take considerably less space."


	5. Chapter 5: Relena, Hilde

Title: Ponderings

Disclaimer: Not mine

**Ponderings**

They'd finally found her, after searching among all the patients who'd been evacuated when Peacemillion crashed into Libra. Now, the battle was over, and Relena looked down at Hilde, lying small and pale in a hospital bed. The sheets were white, the pillow was white, and Hilde's face was equally white – the only dash of colour was her dark hair and the eyelashes smudging her cheeks – and the tail end of Duo's braid, draped over her hand while he sat sleeping in the chair next to her.

The battle was over, and this was the price.

Had it been worth it? Relena wondered, at times when her now world famous resolve faltered and she wasn't sure whether or not peace was even possible, even now when all enemies had been defeated. Some times, she didn't even know who the enemy had been. Romafeller? White Fang? Treize? Or maybe, she thought with a shudder, Milliardo?

But he'd changed at the end, Heero had told her – he'd destroyed Libra's central power core, making up for everything...

She looked down at Hilde, wondering.

Quatre was in a bed in the next room, having needed surgery and a blood transfusion after Dorothy stabbed him. After hearing just how Hilde had been injured, Relena suspected that Dorothy was responsible for that as well – she knew that sending those two particular suits was probably Dorothy's idea. Relena had been locked up most of her time on Libra, but it was enough to figure out who the strategic mastermind was.

Had Dorothy been laughing behind her back, all that time in her school? She'd seemed amused by her, entertained by her, but had she silently been mocking Relena?

Well, Relena thought, she would have to ask some day. Not directly, of course. Subtly. But Relena was very well aware that subtlety wasn't her greatest strength – sincerity and genuine compassion was. Dorothy played a different game.

She looked down at Hilde again, and realised that her eyes were open.

"You're awake?" she whispered, careful not to wake the still slumbering Duo. He'd been so worried when he got back – enough that he'd actually hugged the random soldier who'd informed him where Hilde was.

"You're here?" Hilde replied. Her eyes seemed to contain an impossible amount of relief.

"Yes, I am. The information you brought was enough for them to find me and bring me over here."

Hilde's eyes closed, and she let out a sigh of contentment. "Good. Glad to be...of use..." She drifted off again, and Relena looked at her, and at Duo, still asleep.

Perhaps she shouldn't wonder if it had been worth it. The answer was right there, in their faces.


End file.
